The apparently abandoned gas fire incident which started in Emene Enugu on May 25th has finally stopped on its own accord, miraculously.
The flare was reportedly ignited after borehole drillers struck what is generally believed to be gas underground deposit leading to leakages after the drilling equipment hit underground rock.
Enugu is among the few state capitals in the country without public water supply for over two years, while residents resort to commercial water dealers and water processing companies or natural spring water for survival.
Rather than ensure that public water supply from both the Ajalli Water Oerks and the remediation from Oji River are expanded and made effective, the Enugu State Government rather encouraged private commercial water vending businesses, leading to all manner of water sales outlets and indiscriminate borehole drilling in the state capital.
Several efforts of the State and Federal Fire Service, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other experts brought to put off the fire had failed until the evening of Tuesday June 14, when the fire quietly went off on its own accord.
There have been stories around the sudden fire outbreak with some laying spiritual claims to the incident.
A version claim that Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Edeh, the Director of Pilgrimage Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, Elele, Rivers State who had prophesied that the fire would stop.
This group believes that it was the prophecy of the Catholic Priest that came to pass.
There were also those who said local soccerers carried out some divination that quenched the fire.
Yet some others speculate that the gas deposit may have been exhausted since gas is no longer coming out to fuel the fire.
The general opinion is that government should immediately investigate the actual cause of the leakage, the quantity of gas and other findings surrounding the incident.
The sudden fire outbreak occurred when a bore hole drilling company hired by the management of Caritas University, Amorji, Nike, Enugu, suddenly noticed unusual gas leakage which forced them to pull out their drilling rig and thereafter fire sprout out of the place, defying all measures to quench it until it passed out on its own accord on Tuesday.
